The Producer’s Chair: Mark Bright

Mark Bright

It’s self-evident that Mark Bright is blessed to have been able to work with so many great singers which seems to have quickly become one of his claims to fame.

“When Reba & Gary LeVox step up to the mic, they bring it every single time and when Carrie starts singing…things go to a whole new level. She’s fun, she’s funny and she’s there to the finish,” marveled Bright, who has again been recently blessed with another ‘remarkable singer’, Scotty McCreery, winner of American Idol’s 10^th season. According to Bright, “It’s shocking how really good [Scotty] is.”

Beyond exceptional singers, what fuels Mark the most and allows him to work at his preferred ‘full-tilt’ pace effectively is that his production team ensures just the right amount of ‘controlled comfort and controlled chaos’ in the studio. Mark calls Kirsten Wines his CEO. Collectively, Kirsten, engineer Derek Bason and assistant engineer Chris Ashburn have been with Mark for over 20 years. For 12 of those years, Kirsten has been overseeing everything from A&R to scheduling and Mark has now been working with Derek since their first Jo Dee Messina project, 8 years ago.

In 2008, Bright accepted the position of President and CEO of Word Entertainment, where he was responsible for 105 people plus he oversaw all artist projects, leaving him with very little time to produce during his presidency. “Producing makes you focus. You’ve got to understand what the song is doing, have an arrangement worked out, do your own pre-production, know what you want each player to do and you’ve got about a month and 2 weeks to get the album done. The more time I spent in the studio, the more I felt like I might be jeopardizing the jobs of all of the people I was responsible for,” so his resignation from Word last year was like a new lease on life.

Mark’s new schedule immediately allowed him to be out of town through late winter more than he was in-town and he just returned from 2 ½ months in LA where he had an opportunity to spent some time with Martin Johnson, who had a bunch of straight-up pop hits with the band, Boys Like Girls. “Martin is a wonderful pop singer/songwriter,” and Mark is excited about working with Johnson as soon as he finishes producing Scotty McCreery’s album.

Talking to Mark about producing artists in other genres brought to mind the current status of the pre-maturely disclosed Cher project. Tom Whalley, Chairman/CEO of Warner Bros Records connected Cher’s manager with Mark and they were both in favor of making a record, at which point, Cher and Mark started talking. “Cher is an incredibly articulate businesswoman and she brought to light that, a lot her fans were now listening to country. During their initial discussions, the movie Burlesque, with Cher and Christina Aguilera was released and it blows up. On the heels of the movie, Cher was approached by a huge European group to do a dance album and the decision was made to do that album first.”

I then asked Mark if there were commonalities that he looks for in new artists that all major artists have, and without hesitation he said: “Yes, two things. Number one is Presence when they walk in the room. They either have it or they don’t. At 17 years old, you’d think that Scotty McCreery wouldn’t know which way is up, but that’s not the case. When that young man walks into a room he’s just got it. Number two is The Voice. I look for artists who can change the whole environment in the studio, when they open their mouth to sing.”

But apparently, finding superstars is not the biggest challenge facing producers these days. Laughingly, Mark says: “Nobody cares about record producers. They all understand, it all begins with a song…and that’s a fact, but most people don’t truly understand what a record producer does. The hole is not so much creative, it’s how we’re making a living. We all have that deep sense of wanting to be involved with great music, but we producers are working 5-6 times harder to make the same money. Record producers still make their living off of royalties, from album sales which, is a now dead format. Then there’s that other part of what keeps us all going, and that is, the incredible need to remain valid…my friends and I are deeply competitive.” Bright is actually in awe of the vast majority of his fellow producers. “…Like, how do they do that? Thank goodness that most of us made the lion’s share of our living back when we actually sold something. Right now we’re all probably doing it for the right reason, but it sure ain’t about the money.”

Mark believes that, if anyone can make a difference where producers and engineer’s rights are concerned, Maurine Droney and the P&E WING of NARAS will, but Bright feels that they’re going to need the leaders from other related segments of the industry to pick up the gauntlet. For example, Equipment Manufacturers who sell their products to record producers, “Without the same kind of ‘tremendous’ support that our industry devotes to songwriters rights and artists, it may take a while.”

Sitting in Mark’s office, I couldn’t help but notice that he had about eight guitars around the room including a vintage grand Martin that he was playing when I arrived. “Not many people know that my first love has always been songwriting. For years I kept it a secret, for fear of violating some sort of ethical code. Then I finally decided…this is ridiculous.” Did I neglect to mention that Bright’s timing is impeccable?

Mark is currently looking, so for those of you who think you have the perfect Carrie Underwood song and feel like hangin’ out with Mark for an hour, don’t miss his second appearance on The Producer’s Chair on Thursday, August 25^th, at Douglas Corner, at 6 o’clock.

Note: Mark’s co-venture with Sony ATV, My Good Girl Music just changed its name to Chatterbox. For more details, read the story on MusicRow.com here.